Galápagos Islands

Arrive in Quito and transfer to our hotel.

After breakfast, set out on a walking tour of the capital city’s old town. Walk the streets of colonial Quito, stopping at Independence Plaza, the presidential palace and the monastery of San Francisco, one of the most impressive religious buildings in the New World. Following lunch enjoy an afternoon on your own to rest and acclimate to the 9,350-foot altitude. You might choose a siesta or café quiteño (high tea) at our hotel. This evening attend a lecture before a welcome reception and dinner at our hotel’s highly acclaimed restaurant.

Transfer to the airport after breakfast for our flight to Baltra Island in the Galápagos where we connect to Santa Cruz Island. In the city of Puerto Ayora visit the Charles Darwin Research Station to learn about programs dedicated to breeding and rearing giant tortoises and to understand the efforts and results of Galápagos biology fieldwork. Check in to our hotel in time for dinner.

Today drive into the highlands for a hike at Los Gemelos, enormous twin craters surrounded by verdant foliage, including the endemic Scalesia trees. Here you can spot a variety of the emblematic Darwin’s finches. Look for giant land tortoises as we drive back to Puerto Ayora for some free time before embarking our ship.

Today we disembark at the eastern tip of San Cristóbal Island for a hike offering spectacular views of the shoreline, where three species of boobies are found. Observe frigate birds fluttering their red gular pouches and catch sight of a colony of bachelor sea lions. Following lunch enjoy a panga boat ride along shores lined with banks of tuff-stone layers to reach Cerro Brujo’s wide white coral beach. These are the same shores Darwin walked upon in September 1835.

This morning continue our exploration of San Cristóbal Island, passing by oft-photographed León Dormido islet. After lunch we land at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and drive to Cerro Colorado on the island’s southern shore to the breeding center of endangered giant tortoises. The surrounding deciduous forest is home to dozens of bird species, as well as two species that are endemic to this island, the San Cristóbal mockingbird and the San Cristóbal lava lizard.

Our morning stop at Gardner Bay on Española Island includes a short jaunt to admire the sea lions, mockingbirds and finches with plenty of time to enjoy the beach. Partake in the area’s great snorkeling or traverse the water by kayak or paddleboard. This afternoon at Punta Suarez, take a walk on lava and boulder terrain to gaze at sea bird colonies, including the waved albatross, boobies and swallow-tailed gulls, and the island’s famous blowhole, a geological formation.

Venture to the olivine-tinted beach at Punta Cormorant this morning for a walk across the isthmus past a shallow lagoon that flamingos frequent. Later wander around Champion Islet via panga, kayak or paddleboard, or snorkel in its waters. In the afternoon head to Post Office Bay, where you can drop postcards in the historic barrel that has served as a de facto mailbox for more than two centuries. Learn about the colorful history of the area, as well as the story of how visitors take mail from the barrel and deliver it all over the world today.

After breakfast disembark our ship on Baltra Island and fly to Guayaquil, where we check in to our day rooms. Rest and relax before transferring independently to the airport for flights home.